The musical entertainment field has become an increasingly portable business which requires extensive travel on the part of musicians and their equipment. This is particularly so for the popular groups which employ several string instruments usually guitars. The larger groups and orchestras also experience several tours a year which require travel within and sometimes outside of the United States.
Presently, the expense in transporting musical instruments throughout the country is quite great. Guitars as well as other stringed instruments have traditionally been transported in rather large protective cases. These cases are often so bulky that they are very difficult to carry on planes and buses. The result is that most string instruments, such as guitars, basses, etc., are transported in the luggage bins of planes and buses. This is especially disconcerting to the owner-musician because of the often uncontrolled climate conditions in such compartments which can affect the wood and strings of the instrument. Further, the insensitive handling of a stringed instrument by airline or bus personnel usually results in severe damage to the instrument. These instruments are especially vulnerable because of the relatively narrow and fragile nature of the neck.
A search of the prior art in collapsible musical devices has uncovered the patents cited below. In Middlebrooke, U.S. Pat. No. 519,409, a foldable banjo is shown to have a hinged fingerboard portion to allow the fingerboard portion to hold onto the sound box. The Sawyer U.S. Pat. No. 1,747,650 teaches a neck portion hinged to the sounding box portion for purposes of providing variable tension on a stringed musical instrument. In Parker, U.S. Pat. No. 1,755,019, a guitar is shown to have a neck to which is permitted limited swinging motion so as to cause a vibrato tone. The collapsible bass fiddle in Ruggiero, U.S. Pat. No. 2,464,100 teaches a device whose sound box section is split into two sections and then telescopically stacked one within the other. The string portion of the instrument is then partially inserted into the stacked sound box sections as shown in FIG. 6. In Gassin et al., U.S. Pat. No. 2,803,982, a disassembled bass violin is shown in its appropriate carrying case. It is shown in Savona, U.S. Pat. No. 3,130,625 that the entire stringed portion of a musical instrument can be removed and be interchangeable with other such instruments suitably adapted. In Robinson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,657,462 is taught a detachable stringed instrument having its neck portion completely detachable from the sound box portion. The removable neck instrument taught in Dopera, U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,485 has a neck with a male type plug which fits within a female socket in the body of the instrument. Fastener means secure the male portion to the female portion. Finally, in Jorgenson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,211 is disclosed a collapsible guitar which has a hinged neck to sound box and is foldable into a shaped recess in the back of the body.